Duckworth, Walsh debate for 1st time

The first debate of a nationally significant congressional contest saw Republican Rep. Joe Walsh come out in favor of allowing federal student loan interest rates to double this summer and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth accuse her foe of advocating "crackpot" tea party ideas that she struggled to define.

The Friday night exchange on CLTV's "Politics Tonight" also marked the first time the two candidates for a northwest suburban congressional seat had met.

Walsh's fame as a tea party icon is matched by Duckworth's backing by key elements of President Barack Obama's camp, including political strategist David Axelrod and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The opponents wasted little time hitting on the central themes of the 8th Congressional District campaign.

The freshman congressman sought to tie Duckworth to Obama and suggested that the Democratic effort to hold the line on student loan rates was a politically inspired attempt to hold young voters for the president's re-election bid.

Walsh defended his vote against a plan to keep student interest rates at 3.6 percent after a July 1 deadline, saying it would not result in the savings that have been touted. Walsh said new students would save just $7 a month while the national deficit would rise by $6 billion.

"This was a perfect issue that just typifies everything that's wrong in Washington," Walsh said. "Here was this president whose numbers might be down among young Americans. So what's he going to do? He's going to try to throw a bone to young Americans."

Duckworth, a former assistant secretary in Obama's Department of Veterans Affairs, said she disagreed with Walsh on the student interest loan issue. She defended her previous statements that she considers Walsh's views extreme.

"The congressman has said himself that he went to Washington to be a poster child for the tea party. To scream from the mountaintops. And there's not been a crackpot tea party idea that he hasn't embraced," said Duckworth.

When pressed for specifics, Duckworth struggled for an answer before singling out Walsh's vote for a House Republican budget proposal that she said would have gutted the Medicare health care program for the elderly while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

"I think that what you proposed at the national level is irresponsible and extremist," said Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, who lost her legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq . "You want to end Medicare. You call it a Ponzi scheme."

Walsh countered that something must be done to cut Medicare costs or the program will implode.

"For anybody, Republican or Democrat, like you to say 'don't touch it,' you're ending Medicare as we know it," he said.

Duckworth said reforms must happen but that the proposal backed by Walsh would "end Medicare as we know it tomorrow."

On job creation, Duckworth said the federal government should do more to press banks to lend money for start-up businesses and those wishing to expand, saying taxpayers bailed financial institutions out only to have banks sit on money. Duckworth said she supports targeted tax credits to encourage companies to hire and would support an infrastructure plan that would create jobs and jump-start spending in the district.

Walsh said that kind of government interference is crippling the economy.

"Government does not create jobs," said Walsh, of McHenry. "Businessmen in Elk Grove and Carpentersville and Elgin and Schaumburg create jobs. And what they want from their government is just basically, 'Give me the rules of the road, and get out of the way.'¿"

The candidates also split on social issues, with Duckworth saying she supports same-sex marriage as a matter of "love." A former Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Duckworth referenced her time recovering after she was shot down in Iraq. She said she could not imagine her husband being unable to make medical decisions, saying gay couples deserve those equal rights.

Walsh said it was important for "this society to define marriage as between a man and a woman," but contended the issue should not be at the forefront of the race.